A joint inspection of Life sentence prisoners; A Joint Inspection by HMI Probation and HMI Prisons (UK, Sept 2013)

à propos de la gestion des (très) longues peines au royaume-uni…

Recommendations: The National Offender Management Service should:

•  use the opportunity offered by the Transforming Rehabilitation strategy to reassess how life sentence prisoners are managed in both custody and the community, with a view to providing a clearer strategic focus on this group of offenders and ensuring that they have access to a wide range of services designed to promote rehabilitation;
• issue guidance stating the purpose of OASys assessments and stressing the importance of analysing the underlying motivation and triggers for the original offence in order to improve the quality of assessment of risk of harm to others; such guidance should also clarify who is responsible for assessments at key stages of the prisoner’s progress through the custodial part of the sentence;
• ensure that approved premises are used for those individuals who pose the greatest risk of harm to others.

Prisons should:

•  ensure release on temporary licence is structured, fully risk assessed and well planned so as to maximise the chances of it contributing to the prisoner’s successful future rehabilitation;
•  prepare prisoners for open conditions so as to minimise the impact of the significant change in environment and review the prisoner’s OASys assessment after the move has taken place.

Probation Trusts should:

• ensure offender managers exert more influence over the release on temporary licence decision-making process within prisons, including sharing information about release on temporary licence with MultiAgency Public Protection agencies where necessary, so as to ensure that release on temporary licence is used effectively to prepare life sentence prisoners for release;
•  offer training to offender managers on how to plan and deliver work which enthuses and engages those on life licence, thereby maintaining the offender’s engagement over the protracted licence period.

Prisons and Probation Trusts should:

•  improve the quality of sentence planning and plans to manage the risk of harm to others so as to effectively direct work with life sentence prisoners, thereby increasing the possibility of successful outcomes;
• involve the life sentence prisoner’s family or partner, where appropriate to do so, in the planning, delivery and review of work designed to address the risk of harm to others and the likelihood of reoffending, with a view to maximising the family’s positive influence on the life sentence prisoner.

life-sentence-prisoners.pdf